Hello from Portugal

10+ Posts

I finally followed Jan M’s advice by joining this forum. I was a frequent follower and sometimes contributor to Slow Trav and give that fórum some of the credit for my retirement to Portugal from the States. I’ve lived in Cascais, Portugal for two and a half years and love it. One of the great things about living in Portugal is my ability to travel around Europe several times a year.
I look forward to ‘interacting’ with people familiar from Slow Trav, and offering any help I can give to members traveling to Portugal.

500+ Posts

Hi Kathryn
Welcome!
By chance I have some friends heading over to Lisbon next week IIRC. Do you have any recommendations on cosy wine bars and/or good rustic vegetarian-friendly places? I think they'll be staying fairly centrally for 3 nights before heading down South. He speaks some Portuguese from his time living in Tavira, so off the beaten track more 'local' places are no problem at all (indeed probably preferred).

10+ Posts

Hi Ian,
I’m not sure how much help I will be as i’m not vegetarian. And, usually eat lunch in Lisbon so don’t go to many wine bars. I know personally of one great place in Belem, which could possibly be a place they would want to visit anyway. It’s Enoteca de Belem. It has great wine and lovely food. It’s close to the famous Pasteis de Belem só on the beaten path.
There is a nice vegetarian place in Cascais but with only three days, that might be too far them to travel and there are likely great places in Lisbon. But, just in case, it’s House of Wonders and has a great roof top area with sea and bay views.
Lisbon Lux, Culture Trip and Time Out are websites I’ve used regularly when I want to find new restaurants, bars, etc. I’ve had good results with their recommendations. The Cais do Sodré is an up and coming area that has a number of nice restaurants and bars. And, most any bar they stumble across will have great wine at a very reasonable price.
Sorry to not be of more help.
Kathryn

Forums Admin

I am a vegetarian and we spent a week in northern Portugal and loved it. Most restaurants had a vegetarian soup. The larger towns had vegetarian restaurants. Happy Cow is a great resource for vegetarians.

New Member

I finally followed Jan M’s advice by joining this forum. I was a frequent follower and sometimes contributor to Slow Trav and give that fórum some of the credit for my retirement to Portugal from the States. I’ve lived in Cascais, Portugal for two and a half years and love it. One of the great things about living in Portugal is my ability to travel around Europe several times a year.
I look forward to ‘interacting’ with people familiar from Slow Trav, and offering any help I can give to members traveling to Portugal.

Dear Kathryn,
Thanks for your invitation to interact: we will be coming to Portugal for the first time in April 2018. We will have done a river cruise in south of France, then flying to Lisbon, picking up a rental car and heading to the Algarve and Albufiera for a week (wish it was more, but we'll come back again another year). Have just seen there's some tornado damage and am asking how bad is it? Is there a link to local Algarve news and weather that we can see? Will be looking for web info on driving in Portugal. Thanks in advance, we appreciate any input you offer.

10+ Posts

There was minimal damage from what I saw on local news. But then, I’m from Oklahoma so pretty much any tornado in this area will look puny!
Seriously, I don’t think much was affected.
The Portugal News is an online newspaper that always includes info on the Algarve. And, it’s in English.
I use a variety of online weather sites and most are somewhat accurate. Just google weather in the place you are staying and several will come up.
FYI - taking the train from Lisbon to the Algarve is easy and inexpensive. Then you could pick up your car down there. That’s what I’ve done when visiting that area. Auto Europe is a good site for car rentals. I’ve used them for years and always had good results.
Driving in Portugal is easy as long as you don’t try to drive in Lisbon.

New Member

Thank you. Since we've already confirmed and paid for the rental car out of Lisbon, it will be our adventure! We know there may be tolls and it will be a test to see if we can get google set to 'avoid toll roads' and take those scenic routes. We'll definitely be following the Portugal News paper, thanks for the idea.

10+ Posts

You likely don’t need to worry about staying off toll roads unless you really want that. All the cars I’ve rented while here have had the transponder for the tolls. The tolls are charged to the credit card you used to rent the car. You should ask the car rental agency but I’m pretty certain all the main agencies automatically provide transponders in their cars.

New Member

Thank you. We've not had good luck with rental car transponders, somehow they seem to add fees and various additional charges and we've learned to pay cash at tollways - but we will see how it goes. I'm reading the Portugal News now, you've had lots of rainy weather the past few weeks, it should be quite lush and green by April.

500+ Posts

Hi Ian,
I’m not sure how much help I will be as i’m not vegetarian. And, usually eat lunch in Lisbon so don’t go to many wine bars. I know personally of one great place in Belem, which could possibly be a place they would want to visit anyway. It’s Enoteca de Belem. It has great wine and lovely food. It’s close to the famous Pasteis de Belem só on the beaten path.
There is a nice vegetarian place in Cascais but with only three days, that might be too far them to travel and there are likely great places in Lisbon. But, just in case, it’s House of Wonders and has a great roof top area with sea and bay views.
Lisbon Lux, Culture Trip and Time Out are websites I’ve used regularly when I want to find new restaurants, bars, etc. I’ve had good results with their recommendations. The Cais do Sodré is an up and coming area that has a number of nice restaurants and bars. And, most any bar they stumble across will have great wine at a very reasonable price.
Sorry to not be of more help.
Kathryn

Hi Kathryn
Many thanks and apologies for not responding before - work too me away to York for most of this week, tonight being the first chance I've had to get to the computer.
I'll pass this on to them
Regards
Ian

New Member

Hi Kathryn,
We've just received a cancellation on our pre-paid lodging in Foupana area, due to the storm/tornado damage.....very sad. Thankfully we have a bit of time to research where else we might try to stay during that time, before we leave in 2 days. I know you down-played the damage, but I did see in Portugal News that some parts of the beach have collapsed and some establishments are affected.

10+ Posts

Wow! Sorry to hear that. Either you were very unlucky to be staying in the exact area of damage, or the reports I’ve seen are downplaying it! I did see some collapsed areas after my first response to you. But, the Algarve is almost 2000 square miles and growing up in Tornado Alley, I know tornados almost never hit a very large area. The collapses have happened due to the large amount of rain that has fallen with two (or maybe more now) huge storms in the Atlantic.
For another option as to where to stay, you might want to check out Lagos. It’s my favorite area (so far). Here’s hoping the very unusual rain will stop by the time you arrive.

New Member

Thanks Kathryn, we were fortunate to have an AirBnb host find us room for those nights even with this shorter notice. We will plan to do longer day trips to get to the areas we want to explore, and may get to see Lagos. Yes, I hope the rain doesn't continue to cause more damage - we'd love to get some of that moisture for our severe drought at home.

10+ Posts

Hi again Kim,
Looks like the continued crazy weather is affecting more of the Algarve. I’ve been in Scotland for the last week and just read about a lot more damage. If you had planned to move inland during your trip, it might be wise to do it sooner rather than later. If it makes you feel any better, snow is forecast for the weekend where I am!! Crazy, unusual weather.

New Member

What is up with this awful weather: high wind, rain, sea surges, etc, some of the worst ever!! Boarding to Lisbon now and then rental car to Algarve and darn, no refunds so we can't pick a better plan. Mother Nature isn't my favorite gal right now.

10+ Posts

Yes, the weather has surprised even long term expats and the Portuguese! The good news is the weather forecast looks a little hopeful after tomorrow. And, after the awful fires last summer, we really needed the rain. But, enough is enough! Here’s hoping you get a break with the weather.